Tulo has obviously been hitting out of his mind, and hit two HRs yesterday. Smith has Jeff Baker-sized platoon splits but is left-handed, where it’s much nicer to see that manifest itself. Expect to see a lot of him in this series. Stewart has been battling some sort of stomach bug since the start of the season, which has affected him at the plate. Helton has been having back issues, and was only able to appear as a pinch hitter in a few games last week.

Matchups

Garza has a ridiculous .541 BABIP on the season, hence the large split in ERA and FIP. With a flyball pitcher like Garza, you have to worry about the home run ball in this game. Chacin is the kind of pitcher who can succeed at Coors. He gets strikeouts and has a decent ground ball rate. Even more importantly, he’s managed to suppress HRs.

Coleman was hammered by the Brewers in his first start. Lucky for him, he gets to face another good offense in an extreme hitter’s park for his second start. Hammel was basically a replacement level pitcher with the Rays until he was traded to Colorado in 2009. Somehow he managed to shave a point and a half off his FIP while moving from a pitcher’s park to a hitter’s park. Go figure. The biggest difference-maker was the plunge in his walk rate, which went from around 4 per 9 to the low 2s.

Meet the Rockies version of James Russell. He’s posted 5+ ERA in his last three seasons as a starter in AAA. Not only are the Rockies hamstrung by Ubaldo’s injury, but Thursday’s double header fouled up their rotation schedule. Of course, this just means that he’ll pitch 7 innings of one run ball, strike out 7, and walk no one. Dempster’s strikeout and walk rates looks slightly improved from previous years, but he’s had trouble with HRs, especially as he runs out of gas. He’s still the Cubs best starter, so expect to see some regression.

Prediction

The Cubs stave off a sweep by winning the last game of the series. Assuming the bullpen doesn’t blow the lead the Cubs build against Johnson.